A new phrase: a "pragmatist sort of eudaemonism". Discuss.

One dictionary definition of "eudaemonism" is "a theory that the highest ethical good is happiness and personal well-being."

If we are going to relate eudaemonia (literally, a good guardian spirit) to the English word "happiness" we should understand that happiness as so understood cannot be merely pleasure, or some positive sum count of pleasures versus pains. I won't attempt a formal definition, but it suggests a long-term pattern of living well, in an inner condition of serenity, and possessed of the resources adequate to a temperate and rational creature.

I am thinking of this because I recently found the phrase "a pragmatist sort of eudaemonism" in a book review. I gather that would be a view that actions should be judged by whether they help the actor (and or affected-persons-in-general) achieve happiness. Not pleasure ...happiness. A sort of midway point between Bentham and Aristotle.

It is small wonder that the phrase was NOT "pragmatic eudaemonism" but "a pragmatic sort of eudaemonism". The former would suggest a formally worked-through position whereas the latter is both more informal in tone and suggestive of a range of possibilities.

Everything about the review in question except this one phrase seems to have faded from my mind already....

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